Victoria-based agtech startup Provenir is aiming to establish full integration in the beef supply chain through on-farm livestock processing. Toward this goal the company announced it has successfully secured $1.4 million in funding to support the development of Australia’s first commercial mobile abattoir.
Formerly known as FarmGateMSU, Provenir was founded by Merissa Martinez, Christopher Howe, Phil Larwill, Chris Balazs, Jayne Newgreen – a team of five that includes a farmer, a veterinarian, a chef, a lawyer, and a marketing specialist. Through Provenir’s mobile abattoir, the company has set out to create a new class of meat offering the highest level of animal welfare via artisanal butchering and the distribution of beef under the Provenir brand.
This system will benefit multiple players along the supply chain. For producers, it will eliminate the need to load high quality, well-cared for cattle onto a truck to be delivered to an unknown yard and processor, reducing stress on the animal. It also will eliminate the cost and environmental impact of transportation, and will create a system offering complete transparency and traceability for consumers.
Company founder and farmer Chris Balazs told Beef Central, “Mobile processing makes so much sense, for farmers, for livestock, and for consumers – it’s the way of the future for red meat in Australia.”
Profit in Provenance
The beef industry has operated in basically the same way for decades, and entrepreneurs are beginning to see windows of opportunity for disruption in the category.
In May of this year Seattle-based craft beef startup Crowd Cow announced a successful $8 million Series A led by Madrona Venture Group, with the inclusion of new investors Ashton Kutcher, and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, and the return of existing investor Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures.
Launched in 2015 by Joe Heitzeberg and Ethan Lowry, much like Provenir, Crowd Cow offers a curated ranch-to-table experience and unprecedented traceability and transparency for beef buyers. Through partnering with family farms and ranches, the business allows buyers to select their specific cow and cuts of meat to be delivered to their home along with the story of the farm where the cow was raised.
Another Australian startup disrupting the beef supply chain is My Cow. Launched in 2014 by the Victor Smorgon Group (VSG), and backed by Melbourne’s Calvert-Jones family, My Cow sells an entire cow to wealthy Chinese buyers, slaughters it, and stores the cuts in a secure freezer to be supplied to the buyer on demand. Throughout the entire process, the buyer is able to see how the cow is fed and managed until the point of delivery.
Another is Porter Road. Founded in Tennessee by chefs and butchers Chris Carter and James Peisker, and backed by some of the top venture firms in the food space, including Slow Ventures, BoxGroup, Tribeca Venture Partners, and Max Ventures, Tech Crunch reports that the company closed on a funding round of $3.7 million in early May in support of its similar business model. Working with local farmers, Port Road sources meat that meets the highest standards from livestock that is raised outside, are fed vegetarian diets of non-GMO feed, and are attentively raised. Its meat is hand-cut in its Kentucky facility, and is dry aged for 14 days to improve flavor.
Provenir is a relative newcomer to Australia’s “paddock-to-plate” category – joining Red 8, another mobile abattoir company, and Australian Micro Abattoirs, which differs slightly in that it is a fixed location abattoir – however, Beef Central reports that Provenir is the first to close on seed funding.
After spending the past year making connections with farmers, chefs, and retail outlets, as well as aligning with regulatory considerations, the Provenir team expects that its Provenir brand beef will reach the market next year.
-Lynda Kiernan